The caves are in the south. The port is in the north. Portugal fits in a fortnight.
Which Benagil boat actually goes inside the cave. What a Douro day with lunch on it costs. Whether Sintra needs a whole day or half of one. Reviews of every tour you can book in Portugal.
Benagil, the Douro, Pena Palace, one night of fado.
The four bookings a first trip to Portugal gets built around. What each one costs, and what the people who took it say.
01The cave morningBenagil Sea Caves Speedboat Adventure TourA speedboat into the roof hole at Benagil, out of Portimao. Take the first departure, before the swell builds and the queue of hulls does too.
02The day up the riverDouro Valley w/ Boat Tour, Wine Tasting & LunchTerraced vineyards, a rabelo boat and a long lunch, out of Porto and back after dark. The one day trip nobody argues about paying for.
03The palace ticketPena Palace and Park Entrance TicketTimed entry to Pena and its park. Book the slot before you book the train, because the gate turns away anyone holding the wrong hour.
04The evening in PortoLive Fado Show with Glass of Port WineFado in a cellar with a glass of port in your hand. Small room, fixed sitting, and nobody talks over the singing.
Cave boat, river cruise, or a day out among the dolphins. Pick your hull.
More of this country is reached by water than by road. Three kinds of day afloat, what it costs to board each one, and which coast it belongs to.
The Algarve is one long cliff with holes in it.
Between Lagos and Albufeira the limestone is undercut into arches, stacks, blowholes and the roofed cave at Benagil that everyone comes south for. Small boats and kayaks get inside. The big catamarans mostly look in from the water.
Lisbon and Porto at the ends, the Algarve underneath, the islands out at sea.
A capital spread over seven hills, a river city that ages its wine on the opposite bank, a limestone coast full of caves, and two volcanic archipelagos a couple of hours offshore. Six places to start from, and the best day out in each.
Lisbon is uphill all morning and on the water by six.
Everything in Lisbon →
Alfama before the heat gets into the stone, Belem and its pastry queue at midday, the Tagus at sunset with the bridge lit overhead. These three carry more travellers than anything else in the city.
Sintra in a day, or Sintra properly
A coach day takes in Pena, Cabo da Roca and Cascais and leaves you almost no time in the village itself. Going up by train instead buys you the Moorish castle, a slower lunch, and change back.
Alfama by tuk tuk, not on foot
The old quarter is a staircase with houses attached to it. A tuk tuk takes the gradient for you and stops at the viewpoints a walking group has to earn on foot.
The Tagus with the light going
Out past the Belem tower and back under the bridge as the sun drops behind Almada. The city reads completely differently from the water, and in August the breeze is the only cool thing going.
Portugal’s most popular days out.
Every Portuguese tour we have reviewed →The tours more travellers take than anything else in the country, and what earns each of them the slot.
1
The Unvanquished Tour in Porto City Center
Spend about 2.5 hours walking Porto’s upper center with guides such as Tiago, Jaime, Diogo, Sara, or Adriano. See Aliados, Livraria Lello, Clérigos, Rua das Flores, São Bento, and Porto Cathedral, while learning local stories and getting practical suggestions for food and sightseeing.
From · $3
Read our review →
2
Lisbon City Center Tour – The Unmissable Lisbon
from $3
3
Sintra, Pena, Regaleira, Cabo da Roca & Cascais
from $23
4
Douro Valley w/ Boat Tour, Wine Tasting & Lunch
from $82
5
Pena Palace and Park Entrance Ticket
from $11
6
Jerónimos Monastery Entrance Ticket
from $21
7
Complete Douro Valley Wine Tour with Lunch, Wine Tastings and River Cruise
from $101
8
Six Bridges Cruise
from $21
Porto ages its wine across the river and brings it down by boat.
The lodges are in Gaia, not Porto, and the vines are two hours upriver on terraces cut into schist by hand. A day trip does the drive, a tasting and lunch. A cruise does the six bridges in an hour and gets you back for dinner.
Every Porto day out →
Petiscos, a cellar in Gaia, and a lunch that runs to four.
Half of a trip here happens sitting down. Book the market walk before the heat arrives, the tasting that finally settles tawny against ruby, and the lunch that comes with the vineyard attached to it.
What a day out in Portugal actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by what it costs. A good number of the best Portuguese days come in under the price of dinner.
Tram and tile walks, palace tickets, port tastings and the short boat hops out of the Algarve marinas.
The full-day standards: the Douro with lunch on it, Sintra and Cascais by coach, whale watching off Madeira.
Private guides, chartered boats and the once-a-trip splurges that earn the money.
Three things that only happen in Portugal.
Coastline and vineyards exist all over southern Europe. A cave with a hole in its roof, a wine allowed only one valley, and a music built on being sad about the sea do not.
Fado
It grew out of the Alfama and Mouraria lanes in the eighteen hundreds: one voice against a pear-shaped Portuguese guitar and a classical one behind it. The word means fate, and the subject is usually the sea taking somebody away. The rooms are small, the lights go down, and the convention is that nobody speaks while the singer is on her feet.
- 1Live Fado Show with Glass of Port Wine★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 6,498 reviews
- 2Live Fado Show with Port Wine in Historic Center★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 4,166 reviews
- 3Cálem Cellar Tour, Fado Show & Wine Tasting★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 · 3,530 reviews
Benagil
The cave sits in the cliff between Benagil beach and Praia da Marinha, and at some point its ceiling fell in as a near-perfect circle that drops a column of daylight onto the sand inside. Landing there is no longer allowed, so boats and kayaks go in, turn, and come back out. Swell shuts the whole thing without notice.
- 12.5-Hour Benagil Caves & Dolphin Watching★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 10,710 reviews
- 2Benagil Caves Speed Boat Tour with Sunset Option★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 9,329 reviews
- 3Benagil Sea Caves Speedboat Adventure Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 6,546 reviews
Sete Cidades
On Sao Miguel a collapsed volcano holds two lakes that meet under a road bridge, one reading green and the other blue depending on depth and sky. A village sits on the crater floor with the road spiralling down to it. Cloud usually fills the bowl in the morning and burns off somewhere around eleven.
- 1Quad Biking – Sete Cidades from North Coast (Half Day)★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 883 reviews
- 2Jeep Tour Full Day Sete Cidades & Lagoa do Fogo with lunch and drinks included.★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 668 reviews
- 3Off the Beaten Track Half Day Sete Cidades Jeep Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 583 reviews
Four Portuguese bookings that will not wait.
Most of this country can be arranged over breakfast. These four run on timed slots, boat timetables and small rooms that fill weeks out.
- 01Pena Palace and Park Entrance TicketEntry to the palace is timed and capped. Turn up on the wrong hour and the gate sends you away, ticket in hand or not.
- 022.5-Hour Benagil Caves & Dolphin WatchingThe cave is only reachable by water and the swell closes it at a few hours notice. Morning departures go first because they are the calm ones.
- 03Douro Valley w/ Boat Tour, Wine Tasting & LunchThe wine days leave Porto once, early, and come back after dark. Miss the pickup and there is no later one to catch.
- 04Live Fado Show with Glass of Port WineThe rooms hold a few dozen people and the sitting starts at a fixed hour. Walk-ins get the tables nobody else wanted.
Madeira and the Azores sit closer to mid-ocean than to Lisbon.
Madeira is a mountain with irrigation channels cut round its contours and whales in the water below the cliffs. The Azores are nine volcanic islands with crater lakes, hot springs and diving out on the Gulf Stream. Each needs its own flight, and each rewards more than a long weekend.
- 1Ecological Catamaran Dolphin Whale Watchingfrom $40
- 2Skywalk, Porto Moniz, Seixal, and Fanal 4WD Tourfrom $72
- 3Dolphin and Whale Watching Catamaran Cruisefrom $41
The swell decides whether the Algarve boats go out at all.
Ocean swell closes the sea caves, the dolphin trips and the Madeira catamarans at a few hours notice, and it does it in July as readily as in March. The answer is the same every time: go underground, or go indoors. Port lodges, tile museums, kitchens and a fado room keep their hours whatever the sea is doing.
By place, mainland and islands
By kind of day, water, cellar, kitchen or road
Lisbon, Sintra, Porto, the Douro, then south to the Algarve.
The newest Portuguese tour reviews.
The rest of the new ones →
Bridges Cruise with World of Discoveries or Sunset Option
Read our review →
Aveiro, Cruise, Costa Nova & Capelha da Pedra Full Day
Read our review →
Porto Private E-Bike Tour: Douro River, Parks & Beaches
Read our review →
Half-Day Sailing Yacht Cruise to the Benagil Caves
Read our review →
